Saturday Morning Junction

Plain old Junction with an extra Bump.

Wildlife Encounter: deer on The Approach. Almost didn't see them in time to change my line... so I just yelled at them and they got out of the way.

Saw Rick at Junction - he was doing a TRIPLE SUMMIT. He's recovering from his last crash with and broken bones and surgery and a collapsed lung and he's getting ready to climb Mauna Loa in a couple weeks, so he needs lots of elevation.

Legend of the Bump Progress:

Bumps Today:                02

Bumps of Autumn:        04

People Ahead of Me:     24

Welcome, nature hikers.

Don't have a tandem? NO PROB! Just tie your kids bike to your saddle with a long leash.

Deer, don't jump in front of me!    (whew)

Wednesday Junction w/ Charlie

 First day of autumn. I told Charlie I always find a way to quit at Junction. It just seems like that's about the right amount to punish myself for best results. We started at 0930 which was perfect for weather.

Charlie encouraged me to ride faster by making it look easy to stay ahead of me.

I really pushed my knee on the standing climbs today - it feels kind of wobbly and it protests with pain, but I think it's getting better and that makes me happy.

I have now re-committed to becoming The Legend of The Bump.  "Previously on Diablo Scott's Bike Blog", I attempted to do 100 Bumps of Winter, but then broke my knee. 100 Bumps in 13 weeks is almost 10 Bumps per week of course, and that was a good goal for pre-knee-catastrophe.  But the current Legend of The Bump only has 66 Bumps in the rolling count of the last 90 days, so that is a much more reasonable goal.  Also, he's probably barely aware that he even has this exalted status and he's almost certainly unaware that I will be challenging him, so I think I can do this.

So today I did ONE extra Bump, giving me TWO Bumps of Autumn.

Bumps Today:                02

Bumps of Autumn:        02

People Ahead of Me:     28

Saturday Morning Junction

Today is the last Saturday of Summer.  CJ and JB are both out of town on vacation. I started from The Church at 0830. I've been thinking I should do something more than Junction just to show continued progress, but then when I get to Junction, I talk myself out of it. So today was a medium-hard effort, lots of out of saddle pedaling, went pretty high on the aerobic range but not much further.

A little cool with chance of rain - I did feel a little drizzle... arm warmers would've been nice but I wasn't uncomfortable. I have a sore behind my knee where my compression sleeve rubs so I have to figure out some way to protect that spot. 

Wildlife Encounter: turkeys and deer

Tarantula tally: one.  I wouldn't have seen it except there were three guys checking him out close.

Evaluating myself after the ride - I think driving to The Church and riding to The Junction will be my routine for a while, going harder when I feel good. It just seems like more of the same would yield better knee recovery than doing more than I think I should and paying the price after. I also reserve the right to change my mind at any time... so win-win.

Tarantula hunters get the pay off.

Wednesday Junction

OK, three consecutive Wednesdays... getting back to normal.

Charlie and JB are away on vacations. I checked with Shawn because I still haven't seen his new bike but we couldn't find a time that worked for both of us. So it was a solo ride.

And I had my first post-patella fracture sub-60  Junction time so that was very good result. I did a lot of standing and dancing on the pedals, and it didn't hurt too much and it had some power behind it, but it was still pretty clumsy. I even threw my chain off the crank once and had to dismount to get it back on and I still had a minute and a half cushion.

Passedem-Passedme ratio = 0/6  but one guy was on an ebike.

On the way down, the sun was in my eyes and I had to take it ultra careful... just like every year about this time, except this year I am double secret careful because PATELLA.

Lots of friendly riders tonight, I didn't know any of them.

Wildlife Encounter: deer on The Approach

The Air Quality is... not great.

eBike Guy

Saturday Junction

 Nice today; clean air, no wind, and warm. I got a late start because why not. There were tons of riders out today - too many to include all the photos.

On the knee surgery recovery topic, I forced myself to climb out of the saddle for a full minute or so in each of the six segment splits... it still hurts, but it's getting better. Still haven't had a sub-60 Junction since the injury... I'm hoping that's not too far from now.

No wildlife, no roadkill, no tarantellas.

A guy with a vintage steel Ciocc passed me with a classic bike smile and pointed at his sew-up under his saddle... couldn't find it in my video, but that was cool.

The water thing at Junction is still on - might be the only one on The Mountain that's still working.

My SPD cleats on my shoes were getting loose and I could tell... tightened 'em up when I got home.

At least I'm better than THOSE guys!

Cal Jersey Autoblog

Cal Jersey Autoblog

This guy with the Amgen climber's jersey must've been doing repeats or intervals... I'm gonna say only the first time he passed me counts.

Is that a small-wheel Hamilton?

Wednesday Junction PPFD8

I put out a feeler to our gang last night and said I was available any time before 1PM because HOT. Charlie said 0930 and I said yes but nobody else did, so it was just us two.

My knee's been feeling good in the sense that it doesn't hurt too much, but not good in the sense of feeling normal, still seems lumpy and unstable. But I was able to do quite a bit of out-of-the-saddle riding today - even in some of the harder bits. And I was comfortable enough to put in what I thought was a pretty good effort, even though the numbers say otherwise.

Tarantella Tally: one corpse, thought I got a photo but couldn't find it.

So I was pretty much used up when I got to the Junction. Charlie took a few photos and I met Diablo Legend Scott Copper another one of those people whose name I see a lot in my Strava because we know a lot of the same people and yet we hadn't met each other until today.

It got hot a little sooner than I was expecting and it was about 33°C by 1030 so I didn't stick around long, and Charlie went around SGR for a loop.

Intermediate goals in my attempt for total knee recovery:

1. Junction sub 60.
2. Juniper.
3. Summit.
4. Summit riding from home.
5. Summit riding from home on my KLEIN

My Klein has bigger low gears and different pedals that are a little harder to get into, so I've still been riding Eddy with the Koppenberg Kassette and the SPD pedals. Which is fine, because he's a good ride, just not as zippy.